Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Paranormal Activity (2009)

Title: Paranormal Activity (2009)

Director: Oren Peli

Review:

So every once in a while an indie movie comes along that gets people talking all about how it was made for so little and how good it is. Blair Witch Project (1999) generated this kind of buzz when it first came out and it got peoples attention so much that it quickly became one of the most successful independent movies ever made. In my book, Blair Witch Project succeeded because it managed to get people freaked, without actually showing them the freaking witch! That film effecitvely played with audiences minds, without actually showing anyone anything, it's in that sense a very suggestive film, it simply suggest that something really awful is just behind that door, or in your bed. The exact same thing happened a while back with an independent film called Open Water (2004) though, to be honest, I have to say I wasn’t too impressed with that one, I actually felt cheated. But such is the nature of the ultra low budget film. Sometimes they are magic, sometimes they are not. Now here comes Paranormal Activity, another ultra indie, made with very little money. Is it a good indie horror film? Or will you feel cheated after watching it?

Story concerns a young couple named Micah and Katie. Katie says that she has been haunted by an entity since she was 8 years old and that it still haunts her and does things to bother her. Micah is the incurable skeptic, he wants to tape every second of Katie’s life to see if he can capture any of these supernatural events on film. In reality, he thinks that nothing is going to happen, he just wants to help his girlfriend get over the whole thing. But slowly and surely supernatural events begin to take place, until well, it’s a full blown supernatural attack!

So the story behind this movie is that the director, one Oren Peli, made this film way back in 2007 with only fifteen thousand dollars. He shopped it around to a couple of distributors hoping that some producer would notice the film and buy it. For a while, nothing happened. But then the film fell on Steven Spielberg’s lap, and he loved it. Spielberg states that when he saw Paranormal Activity, he thought it was really haunted because after watching it, the doors in his room locked by themselves and he couldn’t get out until he called a locksmith. Publicity stunt on Spielbergs part? Either way, the film ended up in theaters and here it is, finally, in 2009. Halloween. How was the movie?

Well, I gotta tell you, I went into the theater with very low expectations. I had read reviews everywhere, and everyone was hailing it as this fantastically scary movie that was going to blow my mind. So I of course, took precautions and went in with really low expectations. I decided I was not gonna let other peoples ideas of the film get in the way of how I saw it. I wanted to see if the movie could grab me on its own, and possibly scare me? So, it started, and low and behold, when supernatural events begin to occur, I found myself saying “holy shit!” quite a few times. Which is something I do when something kind of impacts me in a film. The “holy shit!” factor went to about 10 by the time the movie was over; yes my friends, this movie actually managed to spook me. And check this out, I don’t even believe in ghosts or demons! I’m a complete non believer! Yet the movie told its story so well, that it managed to spook the hell out of me.

That’s how you know if a movie is good or not! What worked so well in this film? Well, of course what helps it a lot is the way it was shot. Director Oren Peli decided to use hand held video cameras to shoot the thing. Which was a fantastic idea, because suddenly, everything feels that much more real. Thing with movies shot on video cameras is that they feel like something you and I could have shot ourselves. Like a family home video. It just brings it closer to home. You can identify more with it. Now, I know that this hand held shaky cam thing has been abused to death in many films recently, and it can get annoying at times, testing the limits of your stomach. But I have to say that I was glad that this movie did not abuse the hand held effect. More often then not, the camera is simply placed on a tripod or on a table as the events unfold in front of it. So Im happy to say that the film is not the kind that will make you sick to the stomach because of the shaky cam effect.

As for the performances, the two new comers, Micah Sloat and Katie Featherston (the actors real names by the way) have a great chemistry together. The film benefits from having very realistic dialog. The actors were simply given an outline to follow and they were allowed to improvise most of the film which gives the dialog a more believable flow. We all hate that fake sounding scripted dialog, thankfully, this is nowhere to be seen in this movie. Micah and Katie feel like your regular young couple, they are not these ultra hot Hollywood model types. Nope, they are regular folk like you and me. Katie might be hot, but she is so in a very natural way. So you can rest easy knowing you are not gonna see bogus performances just because the film was made with so little money.

As for the scare factor, I gotta tell ya, if you believe in demons, spirits, the supernatural or anything related to the ideas of paranormal activity, then this movie will scare your pants off. I can tell you this because I used to be a religious person, and I believed there were invisible entities peering at me from "the great beyond". I used to think that an invisible force would grab me by the feet at night as I slept and all that. And I can tell you, this movie plays with all these ideas, and it does it so well that it spooked even this jaded non believer! It takes all those fears you have about Ouija boards and demons and hearing voices in the middle of the night and feeling that slight cold breeze run past by you and brings them to cinematic reality. It will play with your mind!

This film is getting compared a lot to Blair Witch Project, and though there are some technical similarities that have to do with the way both films were made, they are ultimately very different in execution because where Blair Witch Project showed you nothing, this one does. You will see supernatural events unfold before your very eyes, what makes them scary is that they play with the idea of this supernatural events happening within the comfort of your bedroom! As you sleep! What I loved most about this film is that it manages to tell this supernatural themed film without the aid of any cgi or computer generated effects like the CGI demons in the god awful excuse for a horror film Drag Me To Hell. Paranormal Activity also has a lot in common with The Amytiville Horror (1979). Same as that film, this one is about a couple moving into a house, and supernatural events begin to upset them, disrupting their peace. They have an expert on the supernatural visit them, its all very similar, only thing is that Paranormal Activity doesnt go into cheesy territory the way TheAmytiville Horror did at times. The film did have one inside joke that some horror fans might pick up on. At one point, when a supernatural event occurs, it happens at 3:15, the exact same time that supernatural events occured in The Amytiville Horror. So I guess that right there is an indication of just what film Oren Peli was most influenced by.

So in conclusion, yeah, it will scare you, even more so if you believe in the supernatural. Go see it, it’s a great scary film. And a testament to the fact that you don’t need gazillions of dollars to make an entertaining and gripping film.

I see that you liked this movie a great deal and there is a lot to like. You mentioned Blair Witch as I did in my review, and I liked what you said. I do wonder what your opinion of the end of both movies was. For which movie scared me more, I gave it to Blair Witch and a lot of that had to do with the end of the movie. The sudden ending after all the craziness got to me. I liked Paranormal except for the ending because it became to predictable. It was obvious what was going to happen to Micah and that took the suspense away. It just really bothered me. I don't know if you read it anywhere, but I read that there was an alternate ending to the movie, which after reading I thought would have been a much better way to end the movie. I liked your comparison to Amytiville. I did not even think about that. I also agree, if ghosts scare you, then this movie should too.

The ending left me frozen on my seat! The way it was made, its really coming at ya! Right in your face, and since the film was shot on video, for me it was that much more effective! Like boom!

Yeah, theres two more alternate endings, which Im sure will end up on the dvd.

1- Has Micah leaving the room, running down towards Katies screams, then she comes up with a bloody knife and slits her own throat!

And another one in which:

2- The police comes into the house, find Katie stabbing Micah dead on the floor, and the cops shoot her and find the video camera.

I believe all these endings are great. They would have all been very effective. Im guessing the one we saw in theaters was the studio one, they probably wanted something that was more "in your face".

For me this one was more effective then BlairWitch, but thats just me. I thought it was cooler how we actually get to see something on screen, as opposed to BlairWitch, were we see nothing and its all left to the imagination. Was there a witch or not?

Well, I guess we differ on the our like and dislikes of the endings to Blair Witch and Para. Activity. Blair Witch ending not seeing the witch is what got me. Para. Activity was too predictable too me. You knew she was possessed and was going to kill them. If they hide the fact that she was possessed, and then she killed him, then that would have worked better for me. The alternate endings you mentioned are the ones I read about. I like them better, but again that is without knowing she is possessed.

Im glad you liked this one Fransisco, I refused to read anything more than whether or not the bloggers liked it as not to spoil the film, and I was very impressed. The only things I didnt like were there were times when the lead actress felt a bit forced to me, and I really didnt dig the over the top supernatural ending, since the film was shot to appear to be true events, and anything that incriminating with the video to back it up would have made world wide headlines, so it came off as being way too over the top for me.

I havent mentioned this on ILHM yet, but I may have scored an interview with the creator of the film, who the actual events that the movie was based upon happened to! More details to come, but keep it on the downlow until I make the announcement ;)

What I read about Oren Peli (the director) was that he was always afraid of demons through out all his life, and he used that as inspiration.

This is something that a lot of religious people suffer from, the fear of demons and Satan and all that hocus pocus. Afraid some evil demon will grab your foot at night is one of the oldest fears and Im glad he played upon that in the film! That moment is frightening in deed!

I wouldnt be surprised if Mr. Peli had a religious background and did this film as a catharsis to all those fears.

This is easily one of the most suspenseful films I've ever seen. After I was blown away with this film, I decided to give Blair Witch Project a watch for the obvious reasons, and it wasn't nearly as effective as Paranormal Activity. Well acted and well made, sure. But it just didn't freak me out the way Paranormal did.

A funny bit of trivia you may or may not be aware of: 3:15 is supposedly the height of when demons inhabit the coporeal world, it's some parody of the Holy Trinity if you will. Several folklorists say that anybody who was awake at this time back in the 'ol' days' would see demonic activity so horrific they would never be the same- that is if they survived.